This recipe was made up without any testing beforehand and I was so pleased with how it came out. The sponge is very moist but not oily which I find is a problem with a fair few oil based chocolate sponges, and the cream cheese frosting is just so smooth and delicious. This is certainly devilishly cake to make and eat and not just if your name is Bruce Bogtrotter.
Serves 16
Hands-on Time 40 minutes (plus cooling)
Baking Time 32 minutes
Ingredients
240g (plus extra for greasing) Unsalted butter (softened)
290g (plus extra for dusting) Cocoa powder
160ml Olive oil
370g Caster sugar
3 Eggs, large
290g Plain flour
2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/4 tsp plus a pinch Salt
5 tsp Vanilla extract
250ml Double cream
1 1/2 tbsp Instant coffee powder (fine)
250ml Boiling water
150g Cream cheese
480g Icing sugar
35ml Full-fat milk
Equipment
Scissors
Baking parchment
2 x 20cm Fixed or push bottom cake tins
Mixing bowl
Electric whisk or hand whisk
Spatula
Wire rack
Bread knife
Palette knife
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C(Fan)/350°F/Gas mark 4.
Cut two circles of parchment to fit the bottoms of the tin.
Grease the tins with butter. Line with the parchment and then grease the tops of the parchment.
Add a little cocoa powder to each tin and shake it around, coating the sides and bottoms. Turn over the tins and tap them to remove any excess cocoa.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the oil and caster sugar.
Add the eggs and whisk again until combined.
Add the flour, 170 grams of cocoa, bicarb, baking powder, and 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt. Stir using a spatula. You may find the mixture becomes a little stiff.
Loosen it up using the double cream and 2 teaspoons of vanilla and stir until combined.
Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and pour into the mixture. Stir slowly as it will be sloshy at first. Make sure you scrape the bottoms of the bowl as you stir.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and smooth it out flat. Pop them into the oven on a middle shelf for 32 minutes.
Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes.
Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack, remove the parchment from their bottoms, and sit them right way up before leaving to completely cool.
When you’re ready to assemble the cakes, make the chocolate cream cheese frosting.
Combine the cream cheese and 240 grams of butter in a clean bowl.
Add 120 grams of cocoa powder, icing sugar, and a pinch of salt. If you’re using an electric whisk I find it’s best to stir the mixture with the whisk off until it starts to come together, that way it stops an icing sugar explosion. Whisk until you have a thick chocolatey frosting.
Add the milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla to loosen it up a little and give a final whisk.
Using a bread knife, slice the tops off the cakes so they’re nice and flat.
Transfer one cake onto a serving plate and top with one third of the frosting.
Take the second cake, turn it upside down, and press down onto the frosting.
Top with more frosting before applying the rest of the sides of the cake. Spread and smooth out using a palette knife.
Enjoy!
